According to the World Health Organization (WHO) by the year 2020, depression will be the number two cause of "lost years of healthy life" worldwide. However, the cost in human suffering cannot be estimated.

According to a report by Annette Foglino of Discover Magazine, leading researchers are making landmark discoveries on genetics, the link to depression and startling revelations about antidepressants like Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft.

Per Eli Lilly and Company, Prozac proportedly works by boosting serotonin levels in the brain. Paxil CR's claims are that it can help regulate the balance of the serotinin chemical, making serotinin more readily available. Pfizer's Zoloft is supposed to help correct the chemical imbalance of serotonin in the brain as well.

However, recent findings based on a long-term project alliance among New Zealand's Dunedin School of Medicine, the University of Wisconsin and King College London, found that the 5-HTT gene (the gene responsible for regulating the chemical serotonin and message transmission in the brain) "...comes in pairs and in two sizes - long and short."1

So what does that mean? The study found that persons having "...long genes were half as likely to suffer depression as those with at least one short gene."2 Ironically, individuals who had two short genes were also found not only to suffer from depression, but also had correlating higher levels of serotonin. Because antidepressants (as the ones mentioned above) are designed to raise serotonin levels, it in fact implies that medicines such as these do not work as well as originally planned. Based on these compelling results, the seriousness of administering antidepressants to persons who already have heightened levels of serotonin could present itself with devastating outcomes.

According to the FDA's Psychopharmacological Drugs Advisory Committee, an Antidepressants Update report was made on October 18, 1991 discussing the effects of certain antidepressants with regard to suicidal thoughts, acts or other violent behavior. At that point in time, the FDA had already received several reports and testimony "...from patients, advocacy groups, and other interested parties."3 It was over a decade later, (March 22, 2004) when the same FDA released a Public Health Advisory expressing that pharmaceutical companies place warning labels on the same medications due to "Worsening Depression and Suicidality in Patients Being Treated with Antidepressant Medications."

If the Public had only been made aware of this information back in 1991, perhaps teen killers Eric Harris and Kip Kinkel may never have committed the violent and horrific acts they did. But these two are only a sparce sample of the matrix of possibilities. Another report from Freedom Magazine relays how antidepressants accounted for over 40,000 adverse reaction reports, including 2,300 deaths (per the FDA) in 1998 alone.

With modern, conventional medicine advancing at the speed of light, the perilous reprecussions are only starting to unfold. Although some medicines can be very helpful, it is dangerous to withhold information regarding the effects of mood-altering drugs. If you are taking antidepressants, talk with your medical provider - become informed. Tomorrow may be too late.